


What Happens at the Antonine Wall...

by Missy1978



Category: Game of Thrones RPF, Scottish Actor RPF
Genre: Antonine Wall, F/M, Hamish the GPS, Kissing, Roadtrips, Scotland, some swearing but not Rory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-09 11:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy1978/pseuds/Missy1978
Summary: Before she leaves tomorrow, Cassidy has one more item on her list of "must sees" in Scotland





	What Happens at the Antonine Wall...

**Author's Note:**

> To my shame, the one time I was in Scotland I did not get out of the car to see the Antonine Wall, so all descriptions are purely fictional. I have no idea what it looks like.

Cassidy could not believe it, she was well and truly lost.

The last few weeks had been magical. She and her best friend Nell had spent 2 weeks driving around England, seeing the sites, stopping wherever they wanted, meeting the locals, staying in small village b&b’s, drinking way too much cider, and renewing a friendship that had grown apart over the past 15 years.

Life had taken them down 2 very different paths, but a devastating divorce between Nell and her childhood sweetheart following the unexpected death of Cassidy’s husband two years earlier had left them both reeling. After months of coordinating schedules they had arrived at Heathrow, picked up their rental car, and set off on their adventure. It had gone so well when it had been the two of them, if the GPS didn’t make sense, whoever wasn’t driving was responsible for figuring out their next move using a good old fashioned map. While there were some unexpected detours, eventually they got where they wanted to be, and some of their best times had been the unexpected locations.

Unfortunately Nell had to get back to the States a week earlier than Cassidy, and for some bizarre reason as soon as Cassidy crossed the border into Scotland, the voice on the GPS had switched from a posh London accent to an accent that Cassidy was sure could only be understood if you were born and raised in the Highlands.

But she wasn’t going to let the fact that she was lost, traveling alone in a foreign country, driving on the opposite side of the road stop her from completing her road trip. The fact that the GPS was speaking in an incomprehensible Scottish burr was just a minor set back.

Years ago when she was still in her 20s, Cassidy had driven across the USA alone without incident, she could definitely do this. The first several days had gone well, fortunately the places she wanted to see: Stirling Castle, Culloden battlefield, Loch Lomand were very popular and consequently there were lots of signs directing Cassidy right to the car parks.

But now she was winding her way back to the Glasgow Airport, and she had one more site she had to see (if she could find it) remnants of the Antonine Wall. Hamish (as she now called the GPS voice) had directed her to a location, but after three attempts, Cassidy still didn’t see anything.

As Hamish was telling her that she had passed her location again, Cassidy noticed a small pub in a row of stores called “the Wall” this couldn’t be what Hamish thought she was looking for, could it? Well, there was only one way to find out, and hopefully at the same time locate where the actual Antonine Wall was.

She parked the car and walked to the front door, she grabbed the handle to push the door open, and as she did someone was pulling it open to leave. Cassidy stumbled into the pub, hands wildly outstretched to break what she was sure was going to be a humiliating and painful fall. But before she hit the ground, Cassidy felt two large hands grasp her arms and keep her upright, just as her hands landed on him.

As Cassidy recovered from her near catastrophe she had three thoughts: holy shit that was close, holy shit that looks a lot like Rory McCann, HOLY SHIT my hands are on his crotch! Cassidy leapt back as if burnt, and the Rory lookalike chuckled and said “no worries lass, that’s the most action I’ve had in months.”

Cassidy was sure that her face could not have gotten any redder after her rather ungraceful entrance, but at his statement she flushed even darker and mumbled “umm, you’re welcome?” At this, the tall bearded man tipped his head back and roared with laughter, the other patrons sitting at the bar joined in and soon even Cassidy had to chuckle, what else could she do? She was a klutz and she knew it, at least she hadn’t sprained or broken anything this time.

As the laughter subsided, Cassidy approached the bartender to ask about the Antonine Wall. He replied that she was close, it was just across the road and up the hill, and yes the pub had been named for it.

At that point, the bartender asked Cassidy if she’d like a drink. The other patrons, including her knight in shining armor (well actually in a plaid flannel shirt), encouraged her to have a seat and catch her breath and wait for her heartrate to go down. Cassidy had to agree, her heart was still pounding and she felt a little shaky.

She took the stool next to her knight, and asked him if she could buy his next round to thank him for saving her ass and what was left of her dignity. He smiled, and replied “sure” stuck out his hand and said

“hi, I’m Rory.”

“Cassidy”

holy shit she thought, and noticing the look on her face, he said “yes, that Rory.” Holy shit!

Cassidy turned to the bartender and ordered a Guinness, and indicated that whatever Rory was drinking, the next round was on her.

One of the patrons at the end of the bar wanted to know why she had come all this way to find the Antonine Wall, it wasn’t something that most tourists wanted to see.

Cassidy replied that anyone could go see Hadrian’s Wall, but who wouldn’t want to see the northernmost border of the Roman Empire? It was built strictly to keep the Caledonians out of the territory. They must have been pretty terrifying if a Roman Emperor would authorize building a second wall just to keep them out.

This seemed to satisfy him and he went back to his beer. Rory looked at her quizzically, “you know it wasn’t used for that long, right?” She did, but stood by her belief that seeing Hadrian’s Wall was easy, seeing the Antonine Wall took a commitment.

As they both finished their drinks Cassidy began to gather up her bag and jacket and mentally prepared herself to say goodbye to Rory, tuck this unique encounter into her “fondest memories” pocket and get back to her quest. Her jaw almost dropped to the floor when Rory stood up, shrugged on his jacket and asked Cassidy if she minded if he came with her. Holy shit! She didn’t, and told him to lead the way.

As they exited the pub Rory pointed to the embankment across the road indicating that was where they needed to go. They scrambled up the hill, sliding on the dead leaves and mud but eventually making it to the top, where Rory declared “well, here it is, the northernmost border of the Roman Empire, what do you think? Was it worth it?” Of course it was, Cassidy was standing, on a hill, in Scotland, with Rory McCann. What more could she ask for? Well maybe a picture of the two of them, but that would have to wait, right now she had the ruin of a wall to see.

They walked along the wall remnants and talked for hours. Rory showed Cassidy the ruins of some of the forts and where he had cut trees down when he was in his 20s. He told her about growing up in Scotland and how much he missed it when he was on location.

Cassidy told him about how this trip had come to be; the 2 weeks she and Nell had spent in England, and the last week and her adventures with Hamish in Scotland. As they turned back to retrace their steps back to the pub, Rory stretched out his hand to help Cassidy climb further up the embankment, he pulled her flush against him and bent his head towards her face.

Cassidy realized that he was going to kiss her. It had been years, decades, a lifetime since she’d kissed someone other than her husband. Then his lips were on hers, Cassidy didn’t know what to think or do, this was so different. The beard was interesting, a little scratchy but okay, no tongue, oh wait there it was, this was nice. Cassidy mentally scolded herself “get out of your head, your missing this because you’re over analyzing everything. Stop thinking and just kiss back.” And she did.

After a few minutes, Rory pulled back and smiled “I’ve wanted to kiss you since you told that bloke in the pub that everyone should want to see the Antonine Wall, you were so committed, I felt guilty that I had taken it for granted my entire life.”

Cassidy giggled and replied “well I guess my work here is done, which is good, since I fly home tomorrow morning.”

At her statement, they both flinched, whatever this was, it had an expectation date. Tomorrow at 10:00 AM when her flight took off from the airport. Realizing that she’d ruined the moment, Cassidy mumbled “well I guess we better get back, I still need to check into my hotel at the airport, and figure out how to cram everything that’s in my rental car into my suitcase.”

Rory chuckled, shook his head and held out his hand to Cassidy, she grasped it and they walked back to the pub’s car park. When they reached Cassidy's car, Rory murmured in her ear “I’d like to get to know you better, is there any chance you could stay longer?” As much as Cassidy would have loved to have said yes, she’d already been away from home and her job for 3 weeks, she had to get back to her real life and told Rory that. Rory smiled sadly, he didn’t like her answer but he understood and respected it. He kissed her gently one more time, hugged her tightly, put her in her rental car, walked back to his own car then watched Cassidy drive away.

As she started the rental car, Cassidy plugged the address of the hotel into the GPS. Hamish sprung to life and told Cassidy to take a left as she exited the car park. As she drove down the road Cassidy said out loud “thank you Hamish, for leading me to that pub, you’ve given me a day I’ll never forget.” Hamish replied “at the next intersection turn rrrrright” in his incomprehensible burr.

That night Cassidy made several trips to and from the rental car, emptying out everything she had found and purchased over the past 3 weeks. Decisions had to be made what did and did not get to go to the States in her suitcase. Finally, hours later and exhausted, Cassidy fell into bed for a few hours of fitful sleep.

Bright and early the next morning, actually too early the next morning, Cassidy arrived at the rental car return desk at the airport. She felt, and truthfully looked, awful. After tossing and turning for a few hours she finally got out of bed for good at about 3AM.

Forgoing her contact lenses, Cassidy had her rarely worn glasses on, hoping that she’d be able to sleep on the plane. After 3 weeks her clothes looked a little worse for wear, but in truth she didn’t care, in a couple of hours she’d be hidden in the window seat for the next eight hours.

The shuttle dropped Cassidy off at her terminal, and after tipping the driver for hoisting her bag out, she started to drag the suitcase inside when a large hand closed over her’s on the handle. Looking up Cassidy was dumbfounded to find herself looking straight into Rory’s eyes.

Rory looked as tired as Cassidy felt. “what are you do..”

Rory cut her off with a kiss. “I’ve been thinking about this since you drove away yesterday. I realized as soon as you left, that THIS needs to be more than 2 kisses, a hug and a walk.”

Rory dragged her to a bench by the entrance and kissed her again. The beard still felt a little scratchy, but Cassidy decided she liked it. Oh, there’s his tongue, he tasted like coffee. Lots and lots of black coffee. She decided she liked that too.

It could have been minutes that they sat there kissing, it could have been hours, Cassidy couldn’t be sure; but eventually she remembered that she had a flight to get on and she still needed to check her bag and get through security.

Reluctantly she pulled away from Rory and started to collect her things. No matter how they felt, they still lived an ocean apart, and there was no getting around that. Rory grabbed the handle of her bag and walked her inside. He stood next to her as she plugged her information into the computer terminal and got her boarding pass and bag check tag.

Once Cassidy dropped her bag off at the desk they walked towards security. Just before Cassidy got to passport control, Rory pulled her off to the side of the line. Cassidy looked up at him curiously.

“I’m filming in Atlanta in a couple of months, would it be okay if I came to visit you after I wrap?”

She reached up and flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly “of course, I’d love that” she pulled back and they grinned at each other. One more scorching kiss, they exchanged email addresses and phone numbers and Rory shooed her to security.

Cassidy glanced back as she passed through the magnetometer, smiled and waved at Rory. He grinned, waved back, and stood there until she was out of sight. Hours later as Cassidy snuggled under the airline issued blanket she marveled over the events of the past 24 hours.

Who would have thought that the Antonine Wall would have such an effect on her life? Before she finally drifted off to sleep, Cassidy thanked her lucky stars for the audacity of the Roman empire and their misguided attempts to keep the Caledonians out of their territory.


End file.
